Alain Vigneault made a tongue-in-cheek comment about there being roughly 100 people in attendance watching the Rangers' practice and how it could be possible nobody was a member of the Canadiens organization. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

MONTREAL - As Alain Vigneault was walking out of the press conference room following Thursday's practice ahead of Game 2, the Rangers coach appeared to crack a joke in French after he finished his session with the French-language media. He smiled as he made the comment and got a rise out of reporters.

According to multiple French-language reporters who offered a translation, Vigneault made a tongue-in-cheek comment about there being roughly 100 people in attendance watching the Rangers' practice and how it could be possible nobody was a member of the Canadiens organization.

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The in-jest remark comes after Vigneault on Monday revealed that Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton and Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin made a gentlemen's agreement before the series that the clubs would not watch the other team's practice on non-game days; they're permitted to do so for morning skates the day of the game.

When these two teams met in the conference final three years ago, then-Montreal coach Michel Terrien had members of the Rangers' staff thrown out of a non-game-day practice, believing a gentlemen's agreement was in place when it wasn't.

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Vigneault was asked if there is a short leash for anybody among his defensemen given that the coach likes the depth he has with veteran Kevin Klein currently a healthy scratch.

"I'm not sure I would want to call that a short leash, but I would say that because we have seven experienced defensemen - and I would say to you to some extent (Steven) Kampfer coming in and playing as strong as he did with his skating ability - it gives us options," Vigneault said. "I think in playoffs, depth at all positions is real important, and we are fortunate that we have some depth there."

All of Vigneault's lines and d-pairs remained the same during Thursday's practice.

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When Henrik Lundqvist recorded his 10th career postseason shutout on Wednesday, he passed Mike Richter to become the Rangers' all-time leader in that category. He also leads all active NHL goalies in playoff shutouts, playoff wins (56) and playoff appearances (117.)

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Michael Grabner's empty-net goal on Wednesday snapped a 12-game goal-less streak. The impactful offseason signing exploded for 26 goals through 53 games but had just one over his final 23 matches. He scored nine goals in 80 games last season with the Maple Leafs.